A Fantastic First Year

Well boo hiss. But still yeah. This Sunday is mine and the mister's 1 year anniversary. YEE HAW!!! Too bad we don't have cattle to round up. What? Anywhoodle. We were planning on skeedaddling to the country but here in Okiehomie, we've got some jacked up weather sprouting and we've decided to stay inland. Er, in town. I'm so bummed because I want to get out of town SO bad! But it would just be a muddy mess if we went. Not us but our ginormous beast that is. I don't feel like having muddy paw markings all over the place and we partially fear being snowed in if it really snows, that is. So we're staying here and we'll still have a good time with our frozen pizza, polaroid project, schmaniversay playlist and living room camping. We acquired the top of our wedding cake to eat and I'm crossing my fingers it is actually edible! I'm all about nose-diving into that thing! It's really bizarre it's already been a year but I guess that's a good thing that it doesn't feel like it's been forever, eh?

I have nothing else to say except Happy Anniversary to the Bifftastics. We are fantastic. Biffishly fantastic.

Garden Party!

The mister has been mighty busy in the backyard during these pretty days. This year will be our first year with a REAL garden. We've had a corner designated for tomatoes and a row of asparagus (which should be ready this year finally!) and strawberries but nothing that truly constitutes a garden. So the mister has cleared out the five million mini trees and rose bushes that had overgrown our yard and erected a small fence to note our garden space.

Side funny story: The day that the mister put the fence up, Pongo was patiently standing next to it (such as pictured below) and a bird landed in the middle of the garden area. Well Mr. Pongo jumped over the fence from a standstill, chased the bird to the corner, turned around and jumped right back over the fence! So much for keeping the beast out! Ever since then though, he has yet to try again and just stands on the outside of it looking over the edge. It's pretty cute.

Here's the mister during a rare break from digging up a huge stump. Behind him you can see our leaf compost pile, a wood pile and not pictured is our food compost pile.

To break up the ground thoroughly for the garden, we have borrowed a tiller from my parents. A tiller they purchased from TG&Y back before I was born! They had a guy at work get it in working order and here it is in all its glory! It's amazing how many childhood memories seeing that tiller has brought back!

I then took a stroll through the rest of the yard while the mister finished tilling. Below you'll see our future fire pit area. The mister buried all of those pavers himself and is slowly making a rock walkway through all areas of the yard. I liked the way the sun shone down on this pic :)

Heres the garden corner of the yard from the other corner of the yard. That stupid flag is the mister's pride and joy! We had an ongoing 'argument' when we moved in as to whether or not that was a flagpole or a tetherball pole. I still side with the tetherball pole since I want one :)

Oh, something else to note at this point. So our beloved neighbor Hap is now gone and was the mister's bff in the backyard. Almost to the day of losing Hap, another elderly neighbor caddy-corner to us has now befriended the mister. He's in his late 80's and lost his wife last month. The mister finds it funny that his best elderly neighborfriend passes away and BOOM! all of the sudden he's got a new one! I told him it's only fitting seeing that he married a 'grandma', as many of my friends call me due to my old lady tendencies.

Our 'new' fence which is actually about a year old. We spent wedding money on this and it has made such a difference! Pongo can't escape anymore and the meter man can get in to do his job! Also a little more of the pavers the mister layed. And our trash.

An artsy pic I took. Actually kind of a cool story about that spring. I basically lived with my childhood BFF at her house and her at mine. Well, they had this old couch that her mom finally decided had reached the end of its life and let us tear it up! Mind you we were maybe in our early teens? I totally still have two springs from that couch and this is one of them! They've since been used as candle holders, decoration and jewelry tool holders!

And finally, a funny one to end this blog. This would be Pongo staring out of his hole on the deck he created when we first got him. We were SO mad at him when he did this BUT are glad that he actually uses it ;)
I hope your backyards are exciting to you as ours is!

Bring on the Cabin Fever

I figured since I'm on DAY TWO of snow days that I should dedicate a little time to b-logging! It feels like so much has happened since I last posted that I think I'll break this down into little sections :)

Oh, this is 'Pongo' (not his real name but similiar. I like it because it's from 101 Dalmations!) looking out front at all of the snow coming down last night! He seemed utterly confused :) He is enjoying running around in it today though!

Teaching

I'm back in the classroom yet today's classes have been canceled due to the whiteness outside! I should be disappointed but it's so nice to have newfound days at home! Having a weekday off is so different than having a weekend off for some reason!

This semester I'm teaching Intermediate Reading and Advanced Speaking, much as I have done in previous semesters. This semester though, I've found one notable change in my Reading class...nobody is from the same country! I love it! There someone from: Columbia, Vietnam, Russia, Syria, Iran, Ethiopia, India, Pakistan, and Peru. What a special experience for them and me! I love intercultural relations which is one of the five million reasons I love my job.

Now that I'm done with my own schooling, I feel like I am able to give my students more attention then before and thus feel as though I'm a better teacher for them. Also, both of these classes I have taught before from the same texts so I'm able to build on what I've done before, change this and that and build a more perfect class for them! Can you tell I like to lesson plan? ;)

My speaking class is shared with another teacher as we have so many students who want to take this class. It focuses on how to speak in a group, how to give effective and confident presentations and then works on natural gestures, intonations and cues. It is an incredibly beneficial class for the students to take. The first semester I taught it, I mentored under another teacher who is so energetic and is FULL of amazing ideas. The following semester I taught the class alone. Third semester, they asked ME to be a mentor teacher to another instructor which was awesome! This semester, I was supposed to be mentoring again but certain classes didn't make, blah, blah, blah and now I am team teaching with the original teacher I mentored under! I'm so excited to have his input and energy in this class! I think this is going to be a great semester :)

The House

The other section of my post I was going to dedicate to house stuff. We have been doing so much lately it seems! As of last Saturday, we have now owned our house for two years. It is amazing that so much time has gone by so quickly! We were talking about how nervous we were when we made the move as we hadn't even lived in the same city before then! I remember pulling up to the house the day the mister moved his stuff and seeing a big U-Haul out front. I remember thinking, 'ok, I hope this works!' And alas, it has. Thank God. :)

Some of the bigger changes lately is the removal of the Benjamin Franklin stove from the kitchen and the addition of some can lighting, courtesy of the electrically inclined mister. Please ignore the duct tape on the ceiling though which is covering where the stove used to go through. Remember, it's a work in progress :) Now we are able to house a (empty) fish tank there (the only empty one), plants during the winter, a little music station and most importantly the animals food bowls! SO nice to actually use that space now!

Here's a pic of the new can lighting in the kitchen! The mister went on a crazy cleaning rampage yesterday focusing mainly on the kitchen, which needed it badly, and made it look beautiful! One of these days we'll paint in there, replace the sink and the countertops. We're still debating on the cabinets...I am enamored with them and he isn't so much :)

Here's a lovely bedroom shot for you showing that we FINALLY hung up something above the bed! It took a mere two years but it finally happened ;) Oh, two of those three little pillows on the bed I hand made!

Finally, we've focused some time, energy and money into our fishtanks. We've four altogether with three of them actively housing fishies. We are both fish enthusiasts and love to just sit and watch them swim! We currently are fish parents to many convict cichlids, three baja sharks, a rhino pleco, an ancient and huge catfish, a plain jane pleco and three silver dollars we've named Finbad, Spike and Tetris.

So there's some actual photos for you and a lot of babbling to digest! Hopefully this formats ok and it all makes sense together! Hope all are warm and enjoying the pretty white!

May 2009 Be the Year of the Artichoke

I suppose since it's the end of the year, I'm expected to review the year and list expectations for the new year? Well, here's at least an attempt at that.

Needless to say, this year has been a crazy one! Luckily we went through no major deaths like last year but there was lots of healing to be done this year from hardships that have occured in the recent past. Not completely healed but on the way :)

Let's see, this year several things have occured: I got MARRIED for one :) This is wildly important because I'm the type of person to never have a realy relationship, to never allow myself to be loved by someone else and here I am, happily married to my best friend. Truly. Knowing we'll always be each other's side kicks makes me happy every which way possible. We celebrated having our 80lb puppy for over a year now. Never thought I was a dog person and never thought I'd have a big dog but look at me now! I love our beast love having him as part of our lives. I completed an internship in Hungary focusing on English teaching practices in the country. I did this a little less than a month after being married and left the mister at home due to money constraints. I missed him terribly but find comfort in the fact that we can survive away from each other from time to time if needed. The trip was an amazing experience and I fell in love with the country. Perhaps one day I'll return :) What else? Well, this was the year that my father had an argument with a large firework and ended up in the ICU burn unit on a ventilator for three days. That was a tad bit stressful. But all turned out fine and became a reminder of how lucky we are to have each other, near or far. The mister, the beast and I took an 11 hour road trip across country for a wedding days after I returned from Hungary - it was the longest time the beast had been in the car which he did wonderfully with! The mister and I amazingly do very well on the roadtrips if I can keep my anxious little mouth shut about my car fears :) It was a great trip and is always nice to get away. Of course we all know that this was the year that I completed my comprehensive exams and graduated with my Masters in TESL! NEVER thought I would finish any type of schooling let alone a MASTERS! I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself for completing that endeavor :) What else, what else? On a lighter note, I cut off over a foot of hair again, was recognized for my jewelry work, met Pharrell Williams (who I'm secretly in love with), finished my first year of teaching, rearranged a few rooms, discovered my husband is a master juggler (seriously) and discovered that artichokes and brusselsprouts are long lost friends of mine. So there's my year in a nutshell.

What do I expect for 2009? Nothing really. I do hope to overcome some of my fears through having my thyroid regulated again - I haven't been proactive with working with it in years and am VERY suspicious that regulating that will help many of my anxieties...I hope, I hope. I hope to continue to be a successful teacher and continue to learn from my students while learning what works best for them. I hope that our marriage continues to be as enjoyable as it has been and that we become better partners than we already are. I hope the jewelry biz keeps kickin like it has been. I hope my family all finds the happiness they are seeking. I just hope for good and to be able to see the good.

So a New Year's Resolution? Not sure that I have any. Just want to continue taking care of myself and raising the best beast, mister and fuzzbuckets that I can. And I'd like to learn how to prepare artichokes from scratch. I suppose that's my resolution.